1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an object detection apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, there has been known an object detection apparatus that may detect the existence of an object and the distance to the object.
As an example of such an object detection apparatus, there is an apparatus that irradiates light to an object to measure the distance from the apparatus to the object by irradiating light, reflecting the irradiated light by a surface of a rotating polygon mirror (rotation mirror), focusing the reflected light with a focusing lens to irradiate the focused light onto the object, and reflecting the returned light from the object by another surface of the polygon mirror to focus the reflected light onto a receiving device of the apparatus (see, for example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. H06-102343).
Further, as another example of the object detection apparatus, there is an apparatus that may scan light in a desired area by alternately turning on a plurality of light sources arranged in the scanning direction without using (having) a deflection unit (means) such as the rotation mirror (see, for example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2009-103529).